“After discussions with the Executive Board, the NHLPA has given consent to realignment, to be re-evaluated following the 2014-15 season,” NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said in a statement Thursday night.

Both sides confirmed to ESPN.com that the NHLPA gave its consent to play in the proposed four-division system for three seasons — through the 2015-16 season — but the union will begin to re-evaluate the system after two seasons. Therefore, no changes would be made to the system before the 2016-17 season.

All that remains now is for the NHL’s 30 owners to vote on the plan in order for it to go into effect for the 2013-14 season. A source told ESPN.com on Thursday evening that the NHL hopes to hold the board of governors vote within the next week.

“The NHL Players’ Association confirmed to us today that it has consented to a revised plan for realignment, effective for the 2013-14 season,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “Our next step will be to bring the proposed Plan for Realignment to the NHL Board of Governors for its consideration. We will update the status of the process as future developments warrant.”

The NHL sent details of its realignment plan to owners Feb. 26 after discussing it for more than three weeks with the NHLPA.

The league had hoped to get consent last week, but had to wait because the NHLPA needed more time to get feedback from its membership. All 30 team player reps held calls or had face-to-face meetings with union officials to discuss the realignment plan, and some players had reservations about unbalanced conferences, a source told ESPN.com.

The NHL’s realignment plan calls for 16 teams in the Eastern Conference next season. Columbus and Detroit would move there from the Western Conference, which would be left with 14 teams. The plan also calls for the league to go from its current six-division format to four.

The realignment plan also introduces wild-card playoff spots within the conferences.

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NBA commissioner David Stern fielded numerous questions Saturday but provided little news about the future of the Sacramento Kings during his last All-Star weekend news conference. A Seattle group has reached an agreement to buy the team from the Maloof family with the goal of moving it to the Northwest, and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson is trying to keep the Kings in California’s capital.

Stern said owners will continue to discuss the plans and will hear from Johnson with the goal of deciding at their April board meeting. Without saying how, Stern said Sacramento has a chance of beating out what he has said is a strong bid from the Seattle group.

“Oh, certainly it’s plausible to me, but I don’t have a vote,” Stern said. “But I expect the owners to have a very open mind on this. And it isn’t plausible yet to talk about it until the predicates have been fulfilled.”

Stern plans to retire on Feb. 1, 2014, on what would be the 30th anniversary of his appointment to the job. The 2014 game is going to New Orleans, and deputy commissioner Adam Silver said the 2015 event is likely headed to either the Knicks’ Madison Square Garden or the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Silver didn’t say when a decision would be made. The New York bids are not the only ones the league is considering.

Sacramento may be out of the NBA business by then. A Seattle group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer has reached an agreement with the Maloof family to buy 65 percent of the franchise, which is valued at $525 million, and move the team to Seattle and restore the SuperSonics name. The deal will cost the Hansen group a little more than $340 million.

Johnson has asked for and been granted a chance to deliver a competing offer, which is expected by March 1, and to address the board. And he insists his city has a “competitive advantage” because the NBA previously approved Sacramento’s financing plans for a new arena last year when it thought it had brokered a deal between the Maloofs and the city that the owners later pulled out of.

“We’re going to deliver a brand new arena downtown. At the end of the day, that’s a key variable and I think it gives us a competitive advantage,” Johnson said in a separate news conference. “We have a deal that was approved by the NBA already, where the city has a significant public investment that we’re willing to put forward, to build a brand new arena. That’s a key reason why unfortunately a team left Seattle and why teams do leave, is you can’t get arena deals done.”

Stern was asked if the decision will come down strictly to the arena deal.

“This is strictly about what the owners decide,” he said. “There’s a great and strong application from a terrific city to bring in a third and possibly a fourth team in a brand-new building, well-financed ownership group, without the ability yet to build, because there are several things that have to be overcome. But that’s really good. So if you’re a commissioner, you like that.”

Johnson came to Houston in hopes of gaining support for Sacramento, though he and Stern have not met and there are no plans for a meeting. His fight for the Kings contrasts somewhat with the response Stern got from Washington politicians before the SuperSonics eventually moved to Oklahoma City. Stern recalled that the Seahawks and Mariners got public funding for new stadiums that wasn’t available for the Sonics.

Stern said it “saddened” him to depart because Seattle was a great city, but that “history was being rewritten” about the way the NBA left it.

With reporters from both cities jamming the room where his news conference was held, and occasionally appearing bored by their repeated questions, Stern added he couldn’t see any scenario in which both Seattle and Sacramento would be happy. He and Silver both doubt expansion is something that would be considered soon.

He said the committees that will decide in April have a difficult choice.

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Discussions were scheduled for Thursday and Friday between the NHL, the NHL players’ association, and officials from the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee to see if it makes sense for North American professional hockey players to go to the Olympics for a fifth straight time.

“I don’t expect any resolution or decisions this week,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email on Thursday.

The Sochi Games are one year away. While a final decision isn’t required this week, one will have to be reached in the near future.

The current discussions are being held between NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, IIHL President Rene Fasel and officials from the IOC.

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His agent, Neil Sheehy, said he did not know whether Visnovsky will remain with the KHL’s Slovan Bratislava, where he played during the lockout.

Visnovsky issued a statement through Sheehy last week expressing his desire to remain in Europe. The Islanders can suspend Visnovsky for failing to report.

The KHL and NHL have an agreement that all players with NHL contracts are obligated to return to the NHL once the lockout is lifted.

Visnovsky’s case might be the first legitimate test of the sincerity of the agreement.

“The KHL has repeatedly said that they will not permit him to play, so I guess we will have to see what happens,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said when reached via email.

According to International Ice Hockey Federation spokesperson Szymon Szemberg, the IIHF has not yet received an official letter of complaint from the NHL on the situation.

Should the league appeal to the IIHF, international hockey’s governing body, that probably would be the next step.

The IIHF’s involvement would likely only come should the NHL and KHL fail to resolve the situation on their own.

“Please keep in mind that even before IIHF regulations come into play, the NHL and the KHL have an independent memorandum of agreement drawn up specifically to avoid cases where each other contracts are not respected,” Szemberg said when reached via email. “Bill Daly has repeatedly stated that he expects the KHL to respect their side of the agreement.”

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